Stop Homework

1. I just found your web­site and I’m so excited to find out that other par­ents feel the same way as me. Can you help me? My child brings home….

2. Where can I find your book?

3. I’ve read your book. But I still have some ques­tions. Can you help me?

4. How much do you charge for a consultation?

5. What kind of advice do you give?

6. I am a stu­dent. I hate home­work. It’s ruin­ing my life. Will you help me?

7. I am a school prin­ci­pal, a mem­ber of a School Board, run­ning for School Board, etc. Will you help me?

8. I am a teacher. I hate assign­ing home­work. Do you know of other teach­ers who have suc­cess­fully taught with­out homework?

9. Do you have a sam­ple let­ter I can send to a teacher?

10. Do you know of any par­ents who have been suc­cess­ful in chal­leng­ing homework?

11. Do you know of any schools that have abol­ished homework?

12. Do you know how prin­ci­pals have explained their deci­sions to abol­ish or greatly reduce homework?

13. Do you know of any pod­casts I can lis­ten to?

14. If you wanted to get peo­ple started on read­ing about home­work, and you knew they wouldn’t read very much, what would you suggest?

15. Are you will­ing to come to my school/parent meeting/teacher meeting/conference to speak?

16. How much do you charge?

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1. I just found your web­site and I’m so excited to find out that other par­ents feel the same way as me. Can you help me? My child brings home….

Your first step should be to buy a copy of The Case Against Home­work: How Home­work Is Hurt­ing Our Chil­dren and What We Can Do About It. The first half of the book lays out, in a read­able fash­ion, the prob­lems with home­work. The sec­ond half of the book is a step-by-step man­ual on how to go about advo­cat­ing for change with your child’s teacher, at your school, or in your Dis­trict, and how to orga­nize other par­ents. There’s also a chap­ter that looks at the most com­mon home­work assign­ments and tells you why they don’t have any edu­ca­tional value. (Be fore­warned: after you read the book, you’ll be angrier than you already are.)

2. Where can I find your book?

If you can’t find it in your local book­store, you should order it from your favorite online source. Of course, you can always buy it on Ama­zon.

But, as a way of spread­ing the word, you should ask your local book­store to order a few copies, and then ask it to promi­nently dis­play them.

3. I’ve read your book. But I still have some ques­tions. Can you help me?

I would be delighted to help you. Email me and we can set a time to talk.

4. How much do you charge for a consultation?

Noth­ing. Stop Home­work is sup­ported by a grant from a pri­vate foun­da­tion. Con­tri­bu­tions are gladly accepted (and needed) and are fully tax deductible. Please make your check payable to “Stop Homework/Alliance for Child­hood,” and send it to:

Stop Homework/Alliance for Child­hood
P.O. Box 444
Col­lege Park, MD 20741

5. What kind of advice do you give?

I will help you fig­ure out the best way to address your par­tic­u­lar sit­u­a­tion. These are the kinds of things I can do:

* help you fig­ure out exactly what the prob­lem is and help you pre­pare a strat­egy for tack­ling it
* edit drafts of let­ters to teach­ers, admin­is­tra­tors, School Board mem­bers, local news­pa­pers, speeches for meet­ings, etc.
* pro­vide resources that can­not be found in the book
* help you find peo­ple in your com­mu­nity who are inter­ested in work­ing with you

6. I am a stu­dent. I hate home­work. It’s ruin­ing my life. Will you help me?

Of course. Let me know what you need.

You can also take a look at what other stu­dents think about home­work by brows­ing through the archives sec­tion of this blog, Stu­dents Speak Out. Or, take a look at this zine by three high school stu­dents, “A Stu­dents’ Guide to Tak­ing Back the Class­room”. Copy and dis­trib­ute it at your school.

7. I am a school prin­ci­pal, a mem­ber of a School Board, run­ning for School Board, etc. Will you help me?

Absolutely. These are the kinds of things I can do:

* pro­vide resources that can­not be found in the book
* put you in touch with other peo­ple in sim­i­lar posi­tions to you who have changed, or are chang­ing, home­work pol­icy
* help you draft (or edit) a let­ter to your con­stituency explain­ing your pol­icy
* speak to your staff

8. I am a teacher. I hate assign­ing home­work. Do you know of other teach­ers who have suc­cess­fully taught with­out homework?

Yes. Take a look at this and this and this.

9. Do you have a sam­ple let­ter I can send to a teacher?

The book has dozens. If you don’t find what you’re look­ing for in the book, take a look at this let­ter, which was writ­ten by a New Jer­sey par­ent to her second-grade son’s teacher and prin­ci­pal, or take a look at the numer­ous let­ters I’ve posted by par­ent activists. You can find them by scrolling through Moms (and Dads) on a Mis­sion.

10. Do you know of any par­ents who have been suc­cess­ful in chal­leng­ing homework?

Yes. In The Case Against Home­work, there are many exam­ples of par­ents advo­cat­ing on behalf of their chil­dren. And, if you browse Moms (and Dads) on a Mis­sion you’ll find lots of posts by par­ents who describe, in their own words, what they’re doing and whether they’re hav­ing any success.

11. Do you know of any schools that have abol­ished homework?

Sadly, there aren’t nearly as many as I’d like.

But if you need an exam­ple or two, take a look at what this school in Wyoming and these schools in the San Fran­cisco Bay area have done.

In Toronto, Canada, the Toronto Dis­trict School Board com­pletely over­hauled its home­work pol­icy. Read the most fam­ily friendly pol­icy I’ve seen yet here. Frank Bruni, the par­ent who insti­gated the reform, blogged about his expe­ri­ences on stophome​work​.com. To see what other par­ents have done, or are doing, be sure to take a look at Moms (and Dads) on a Mis­sion.

In Eng­land, the teacher’s union debated a motion to abol­ish or greatly reduce home­work in April, 2008. In the Fall of 2008, a highly ranked boys’ school near Lon­don and England’s newest and largest school either reduced home­work or vowed not to have it.

A newly opened school in Aus­tralia has included an opt-out clause, which states, “In recog­ni­tion of other demands on our stu­dents, we sup­port indi­vid­ual stu­dents, with par­ent sup­port, for­mally ‘opt­ing out’ of the set homework.”

12. Do you know how prin­ci­pals have explained their deci­sions to abol­ish or greatly reduce homework?

Yes. Here’s a copy of a let­ter a prin­ci­pal in Wyoming sent to the par­ents at her ele­men­tary school.

13. Do you know of any pod­casts I can lis­ten to?

Yes. At BAM! radio, you can find lots of inter­est­ing interviews.

I also rec­om­mend get­ting a copy of the DVD of the Fall, 2008, Stressed Out Stu­dents’ con­fer­ence, with keynote speeches by David Elkind, Dr. Ken Gins­burg, Dr. Made­line Levine, and Denise Clark Pope. You can order a copy of the DVD for $4.00 here.

14. If you wanted to get peo­ple started on read­ing about home­work, and you knew they wouldn’t read very much, what would you suggest?

I would def­i­nitely have them read the fact sheet on pages 259 – 260 of The Case Against Home­work.

I would pick and choose from the following:

*this arti­cle from The Wash­ing­ton Post, where edu­ca­tion reporter, Jay Math­ews, who had given him­self the moniker “Mr. Home­work,” calls for the abo­li­tion of home­work in ele­men­tary school
* this arti­cle from The Wall Street Jour­nal, this piece from the National Asso­ci­a­tion of Inde­pen­dent Schools, or this arti­cle from Encounter: Edu­ca­tion for Mean­ing and Social Jus­tice (Home­work Issue), on the stresses fac­ing high school­ers
*this arti­cle on redesign­ing home­work to cre­ate more time for learn­ing from Encounter: Edu­ca­tion for Mean­ing and Social Jus­tice (Home­work Issue)
* this infor­ma­tion on the impor­tance of sleep
* this infor­ma­tion on the impor­tance of play
* this infor­ma­tion on how math home­work doesn’t help the aver­age stu­dent
* this infor­ma­tion on what works in an Eng­lish class
* this infor­ma­tion on the the trou­ble with pack­aged read­ing programs

15. Are you will­ing to come to my school/parent meeting/teacher meeting/conference to speak?
Yes.

16. How much do you charge?

That depends on where you are located and the finances of your orga­ni­za­tion. Feel free to con­tact me.